The Hill decides now would be a good time to edit some of John Solomon’s old pieces

Several months after he published a whole bunch of bought and paid for lies, via a “respected” publication owned by A Friend of Ours:

James “Jimmy” Finkelstein, the owner of The Hill newspaper, is not a widely known media executive, but he is one of the era’s most consequential. 

Finkelstein resides at the nexus of President Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and John Solomon, the now-former executive at The Hill and current Fox News contributor who pushed conspiracy theories about Ukraine into the public conversation. 

While Solomon has received significant media attention for his work at The Hill, Finkelstein has stayed out of the headlines, despite having himself played a crucial role in the saga. Beyond his relationship with Solomon, Trump, and Giuliani, Finkelstein was Solomon’s direct supervisor at The Hill and created the conditions which permitted Solomon to publish his conspiratorial stories without the traditional oversight implemented at news outlets. And he has kept a watchful eye on the newspaper’s coverage to ensure it is not too critical of the President.


As one former veteran employee of The Hill told CNN Business, “Solomon is a symptom of the larger problem of Jimmy Finkelstein.”


Finkelstein has been friends with Trump for decades. In fact, according to a former employee at The Hill, he “boasts that he’s a close friend” of the President. “Getting a phone call from Trump would fill him with joy,” the former employee told CNN Business.

Trump himself has also privately acknowledged his relationship with Finkelstein. During an Oval Office interview with The Hill, according to a person with direct knowledge of the incident, Trump asked one of the outlet’s staffers to send along his greetings to Finkelstein. “Tell Jimmy I said hello,” Trump told the staffer.

Finkelstein’s wife, Pamela Gross, who worked at CNN but left in 2017, is close with Melania Trump. Gross threw a baby shower for Melania Trump, according to a person familiar with the event.

“Whenever we couldn’t book a guest, John [Solomon] would call Jimmy [Finkelstein], Jimmy would call Rudy [Giuliani], and Rudy would come in or Skype.”

Finkelstein and Gross are also both close with Giuliani, who currently serves as Trump’s personal attorney. Finkelstein often hosts social gatherings at his Hamptons home and, according to a person familiar with the matter, Giuliani and his girlfriend spent multiple weekends at the residence this past summer. 


So when Giuliani attempted to dig up political dirt on Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden, a natural place for him to disseminate the information was The Hill. And the natural person at The Hill to go to was Solomon, who had been personally hired by Finkelstein.

Giuliani told The New York Times that he shared his Ukraine information with Solomon, though it’s unclear how much of it if any Solomon used. Other media reports have shed additional light on how closely the two collaborated. One report from The Daily Beast revealed that Giuliani had even obtained a full draft of an unpublished story by Solomon before publication. Giuliani told The Daily Beast the copy was not provided by Solomon, but he wouldn’t say how he obtained it.

Much more at the link. Some of these people need to go to prison for a long time, while others should be treated by real journalists as permanent pariahs.